NETWORKING

The X-Wings began their run across the surface of the Death Star, racing to attack an exposed thermal exhaust port. Luke Skywalker was there, his tiny spacecraft rocking and shaking, buffeted by explosions. As he closed in on his target, Luke did something truly daring—he switched off his targeting system. He was now relying solely on the Force to help him find his objective. Exciting, right? Now, while this might be perfectly believable in George…

In this ‘Focus on HyperFlex’ blog, we’ll zero-in on different aspects of the Cisco HyperFlex (‘HX’) hyperconverged system and ways to make HX work best for you and your organization. This edition will illustrate on how to size a cluster when you might not have all the details of the workload worked out. In this situation, HyperFlex Profiler is the right approach to learn more about the workloads.    During my time in sales, teams often…

The hardware-based mitigations introduced in Intel and ARM CPUs over the past few years to fix a serious flaw called Spectre are not as strong as believed. Researchers have devised a new attack method that can defeat the defenses, but exploitation is not as easy as with the original flaw. The new attack, discovered by researchers from the Systems and Network Security Group at VU Amsterdam (VUSec) is called Spectre-BHI, for Branch History Injection, or…

Did you know that for just over a century, people all around the world have gathered to celebrate and support International Women’s Day? In fact, the very first International Women’s Day (IWD) was observed in Austria, Denmark, Germany, and Switzerland on March 19, 1911, where over one million women and men rallied around women’s right to work, vote, be trained, hold public office, and to end discrimination.   While we’ve clearly made a lot of…

Anitha Gollapudi plays a dual role in Cisco’s Data and Analytics organization. She extends her stakeholder engagement skills as a platform manager, and she leverages her experience with functional data in leading metrics for a critical company-wide program. As an introvert, Anitha never expected to have a spotlight on her.   On International Women’s day, Cisco’s Data and Analytics Office is proud to celebrate Anitha Gollapudi, who shows that indeed, an introverted woman can be…

The mining operators I talk to are either already using autonomous and / or tele-remote vehicles—or want to. It’s smart. Autonomous haulage vehicles and tele-remote vehicles like dozers and drills take operators out of harm’s way and make the job more appealing. They also increase overall equipment effectiveness (OEE) by eliminating idle time while operators are bussed in for their shifts. For more on the advantages, check out my first blog in this series. What’s…

Every mining company sells product to someone. While this looks very different for an integrated diamond company than it does for an iron ore miner, in all cases, the success of this customer relationship can fundamentally affect the company’s success. As with most industries, Mining can have a lengthy supply chain reaching from the mine face all the way to your home where final products can end up. Some fully integrated mining companies own the…

Each energy company fits into a broad ecosystem of energy sectors from exploration and production to refineries and convenience stores. Even with all this variation, every energy company sells its services and products to someone. How does the value of this customer relationship get optimized for both sides of the transaction and how can Cisco help? The Energy Customer Relationship As with most industries, the energy industry can have a lengthy supply chain, reaching from…

Utility Grid automation, particularly in the distribution space (DA), requires a wide variety of deployed and supported use cases to continue to improve the safe, reliable, and efficient delivery of power. Last-mile wireless communications networks have become the leading solution to connect and support these field deployed automation assets. With the ever-increasing operational reliance on these connected assets, the importance of their underlying wireless network continues to remain an industry focus.  Scale The scale of…

Retail has always been competitive. But the advent of technology and the disruption caused by online companies has made it even more challenging for traditional retailers to attract customers and drive consistent revenue and growth. COVID-19 has introduced additional complexity as companies who didn’t have an online presence had to move online. Many are still investing in health and safety measures for their employees while managing supply chain bottlenecks. These developments have also created pressure…